In this week’s daily editions of Bitcoin in Brief we reported about Coinbase opening the floodgates for institutional money, the new crypto law in Malta, and a move by Bittrex to invade the European market. We also covered, in this week’s most commented-on article, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman’s trolling of XRP and BTC supporters.

Fake Trezor Wallet Website

On Monday, we reported that hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor has issued a warning to clients about a phishing attempt against its users. A fake Trezor Wallet website was served to some users who attempted to access the legitimate address (wallet.trezor.io). The signs point toward DNS poisoning or BGP hijacking. Thankfully, the fake wallet has been taken down by the hosting provider. However, Trezor asked clients to remain vigilant and report all suspicious sites as it is possible that this attack method will be used again in the future. Additional stories included the floods in China that took out enough mining farms to make a dent in the global hash rate, and a couple of big new investments in the field.

Coinbase Custody Opens

The big story on Tuesday was that the new institutional offering Coinbase Custody officially opened for business. The service will be onboarding crypto hedge funds, exchanges and ICO projects over the coming weeks. It provides secure storage for institutions in both the US and Europe, and the company hopes to bring this offering to Asia as well, before the end of the year. The service currently supports BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH, and is expected to open the floodgates for big institutional money looking for cryptocurrency exposure. In other exchange-related news, Hitbtc responded to John McAfee’s accusations that the venue is “killing poor people”, BTCC officially launched its new platform, and Huobi announced the postponement of Hadax voting.

Buying Crypto is Too Hard?

On Wednesday, we reported that the complicated process of purchasing cryptocurrencies is the biggest obstacle for new investors entering the crypto space. This was according to a recently released survey of 1,000 US residents designed to profile crypto holders and better understand how they are using their digital coins. The poll also attempted to gauge the cultural perceptions surrounding cryptocurrency ownership. Another study found that despite regulatory pressures and other issues like bad publicity due to fraudulent or unsuccessful projects, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have raised $11.8 billion through May 2018.

Malta Enacts Crypto Law

The big news on Thursday was that the parliament of Malta had given the final approval for three bills meant to create a welcoming regulatory framework for crypto ventures. The bills enacted into law are the Digital Innovation Authority Act, the Innovative Technological Arrangement and Services Act, and the Virtual Financial Asset Act. We took a deep look into the law and found a number of issues that can have an impact on traders and exchanges such as prohibitions on insider trading, market manipulation and misleading ads or ICO whitepapers.

Bittrex Invades Europe

On Friday, it was reported that Bittrex has released details of a new venture with Invest.com. The pair will be creating a digital asset trading platform, to open to EU traders initially. It will feature over 200 tokens whilst leveraging Invest.com’s knowledge of derivative trading, equity trading and portfolio management. And another six letter domain, Crypto.com has been sold for millions.

Bitcoin Enters Indian Politics

On Saturday, it was reported that the Indian National Congress (INC), one of the two leading parties in the country, accused its major political opponent, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of being complicit in a “bitcoin scam”. INC spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil demanded a judicial probe into the alleged money-laundering scheme using the cryptocurrency. Additional stories covered some BCH-related projects and services, as well as the latest incarnations of the blockchain technology.

Paul Krugman Trolls Ripple

The most commented-on article during the week covered the verbal attack on XRP by Nobel laureate economics professor and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman. “If a digital currency isn’t actually used for any transactions, is it, you know, actually a currency?” tweeted Krugman. He was prompted by a colleague’s recent article regarding a push by Ripple’s XRP to urge users to do more than just speculate. Join the discussion.

This Week in Bitcoin Podcast

Catch the rest of this week’s news in the This Week in Bitcoin podcast with host Matt Aaron.

What other stories in the Bitcoin world caught your attention this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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